Bowmanville Zoo (Closed) Bowmanville Zoo

The zoos lioness, Kaya, is pregnant with cubs due around the end of May or the beginning of June. The father is the zoos male Leo.
 
A male kangaroo joey, Irwin, is now popping out of mom's pouch. He is named after Steve Irwin.
 
4 lion cubs were born June 6th. The female and 3 males are meeting their public now during short sessions.
 
2 black lemurs have been born. The youngest was rejected by his first time mother and is being hand reared by his keeper who has been keeping him inside her shirt for warmth.
 
I went to the Bowmanville Zoo a couple weeks ago. It was better than I thought, although they move the animals around quite often, because some of the animal weren't where they were supposed to be on the map.
 
Ok I didnt really like it when the zoo pulled the lion cubs for hand rearing so they could "be easier to work with." It also bugs me they appear to just be using the cubs as cash cows so people can take photos holding them... As much as I want to hold a lion cub. But this is worse. They have pulled one of the cubs, Tobias, and sent him to Elmvale Jungle Zoo on his own. Poor little guy isnt even with his brothers. He will be their until the end of September... probably renting him out. I just think this is wrong.

Later two of the cubs are to be sent to Africa to join a game reserve, “Where they'll be able to breed and interact with the wild: hunt, kill and eat,” says Dirk Hackenberger of the Bowmanville Zoo. “Do what they'd normally do in the wild.” This sounds even more bothersome. They said they were hand rearing to make them more people friendly, easier to work with. Now they plan on taking extremely tame lions and releasing them into a semi wild setting where without the guidance of a pride they will have to fend for themselves? Is that not at odds with their initial plan? Isnt that kind of mean? These poor lions dont know how to be lions, never had a chance to learn from mom and dad, and now they want them to be semi wild, hunt and breed. I just dont get it.

Cute Guest: Lion cub takes up residence at Elmvale Zoo | CTV Barrie News
 
I guess we are talking hybrid / zoo mix lions here?

The Back to Africa initiative with lions of unknown description seems to be a recurring project in various zoos both sides of the Atlantic. I flies in the face of all IUCN guidelines for rehabilitation and / or reintroduction. I frequently wonder why accredited zoos would even want to be associated with these projects. Well to be plain, most of the times, the zoos involved are non-accredited and seem to use it as a PR exercise with conservation message mumbo jumbo in it …. Sadly!
 
I hadn't seen this article yet, but I did read another one a couple of days ago that talked about the plans to send 2 lions back to Africa. My feeling is that the entire thing is a publicity stunt (and it wouldn't be the first time they do things purely for publicity). Bowmanville no longer has their elephant, so they need something to keep it in the news and what's better than releasing hand-rasied lions back into the wild.
 
Releasing hand-raised lion in the wild is kind of dumb. There is a chance that the Lion's natural instincts can kick in, but there is a greater chance that they'll be killed by other predators.
 
Ok I had tried to be fair in the first post because I wasnt sure if I was seeing what everyone else would see too. Now Im not going to be fair and just ask because I know some reserves arent really reserves in the sense we would all hope. What if they are being sent to a reserve where they could be hunted by trophy hunters? The reserve wasnt named so you cant look it up and see if the cubs would be safe there from hunters forget other lions who know how to be lions, hyenas, starvation. It disturbs me greatly.
 
More on the incredibly dumb idea of releasing the lion cubs into the wild. It still makes zero sense to me and I think the cubs chosen will end up being killed. Reintroductions should only be done under the right conditions, like with California Condors. First and foremost should be being raised by other lions. They should have no visual access to humans and if they have to it should be a bad thing to teach them people arent friends, or sources of food. But the stumbling block is how to teach them how and what to hunt. It can be done but probably over a few generations of gradually less and less reliance on people so that the parents of the cubs chosen for release are virtually wild themselves.

Zoo lions headed back to wilds of Africa | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun
 
Now the zoo says it has a female lion cub, Frieda. Maybe the male that was supposed to be a female really was a female.

They also have acquired a male tiger cub, Max from another Ontario zoo.
 
Surprising they would bend to public will. Seems stupid they would declaw the cubs anyway since they claim they are going to release some of them back into the wild.
 
Female lioness, Athena, has been introduced to male Leo. They will bond before introducing female Kaya to expand the adult pride. Shes been there over the summer but just not with the other adult lions.

They also just picked up male lemur, Jack, from Toronto Zoo. He will be renamed and a contest is going to be held to rename him since there already is a Jack in the troop. Young Jack was born this year and in time will become the breeding male.
 
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